AUGUSTA — Kyle Stevenson had a game-ending double play in his sights and booted it. Two batters later, Stevenson got another chance and made it count.

Bangor held off a seventh-inning rally by South Portland to beat the Riots 5-4 and capture its second straight Class A baseball state championship Saturday afternoon at Morton Field.

Bangor (18-2) won with only three hits. Four of the Rams’ runs were unearned, all coming in the decisive fourth inning after the Riots had taken a 3-1 lead in the top half of the inning.

For two teams who pride themselves on defense, this was a radical departure from their previous games. Each team made four errors.

“This was our worst game of the season,” said Bangor Coach Jeff Fahey. “Fortunately for us, South Portland was having the same problems.

“We lost two games all season and were three hits away from being undefeated. Today, we couldn’t bunt or move the runners along. Our 3-4-5 hitters were 0-fer.”

Stevenson said he was thankful to get a chance to atone for his error.

“I wanted it so bad,” said Stevenson. “I wanted to make up for it. I took my eye off the ball.”

Stevenson got his reprieve on Jacob Brown’s soft pop that looked like it had a chance to fall in when it left the bat. The Red Riots (15-5) already scored one run and had runners on first and second with one out. Stevenson caught it and flipped to second baseman Johnny Cote, who stepped on the bag to double up pinch runner Hayden Owen.

“We had a hard time in the field, but this one feels just as good as last year’s,” said Stevenson, a junior.

With the Rams on top 5-3 in the seventh, Bangor pitcher Andrew Hillier got leadoff batter Henry Curran to fly out to left. Sam Troiano reached on an error by the normally sure-handed Cote, and Anthony Degifico then hit a sharp grounder up the middle. Stevenson moved a few steps to his left but bobbled the ball, and Owen slid safely into second while Troiano rounded third and scored.

The next batter, Nick Troiano, was intentionally walked.

“Assistant coach Dave Morris convinced me to do it,” said Fahey.

Up came Brown, the Riots’ unsung hero for most of the season. Stevenson caught Brown’s ball, and a flip later it was over.

“We gave ourselves a chance to win at the end,” said South Portland Coach Mike Owens. “Hayden got caught in a tough spot. It was a tough play to read. We tell our base runners to be aggressive.”

Leading 3-1 through in the fourth inning, the Riots seemed to have the momentum as pitcher Sam Troiano was in control. But South Portland made two errors in the bottom of the fourth, and Troiano threw two wild pitches and walked two batters, leading to four Bangor runs – all unearned. Trevor DeLaite’s two-run single made it 5-3.

“We got here because of our pitching and defense, and our defense kind of let us down,” said Owens. “The players showed a lot of class coming back under pressure.”

South Portland jumped on top in the top of the first. After one out, Beecher walked and went to third on Degifico’s single to right. Nick Troiano drove in Beecher with a sacrifice fly to left.

Bangor tied it in the bottom half when leadoff batter Jordan Derrah reached on a error, moved to third on DeLaite’s single and scored on Hillier’s groundout.

Ben Conti’s triple to center scored Brown to give the Riots a 2-1 lead in the fourth. Drew Abramson drove home Conti with a single.

For Bangor, which is 36-4 over the past two seasons, it was the 11th state championship since 1970. South Portland was playing in its first state final since 1991.

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